Singapore employees face increasing demands: Report

PHOTO: Singapore employees face increasing demands: Report

Singapore – Nine out of 10 employees in Singapore feel that employers’ demands on skills and competencies are higher now than they were five years ago.

Increased emphasis is now being placed on education, experience and social and digital skills, the Randstad Workmonitor Report for Q3 2013 revealed on Monday.

Country Director of Randstad Singapore, Mr Michael Smith, said that employees are now expected to work across multiple functions.

“Organisations are becoming flatter and leaner, so employees need to be high-performing and wear several hats," he said.

"Business leaders value employees who have varied skills and can jump on board to assist when the need arises,” Mr Smith added.

Most Singaporean employees (80 per cent) are also expecting their jobs to become more demanding in the next five years. Almost half (47%) of these employees are concerned that they will not be able to meet their employers' requirements in the future.

Mr Smith said in a press statement that employees feel the need to proactively update their competencies to remain relevant in their field of work.

When it comes to training, the report revealed that nine out of 10 employees believing that they are responsible for ensuring that their own skills and knowledge correspond to their job requirements. However, 91 per cent also indicated that employers should also bear the responsibility of ensuring employees' get the chance to upgrade and update their skills.

The survey also found that Singaporeans were the least satisfied with their employers globally. About 56 per cent of employees indicated that they were not satisfied with their employers. This is the highest in the world; and one quarter of employees changed jobs in the last six months.

Randstad Workmonitor said that employees were seeking to advance their own careers and that companies which help employees do so tend to be able to keep their workers satisfied and more engaged in the long run.